Get Even More GQ This Month

Web-exclusive Q&A

Jeremy Piven talks to GQ.com about the lies that get told in Hollywood and the Buddhist teachings of Al Pacino

For a long time you took a lot of small, notsogratifying roles, but now you're in a position where you can pick and choose more. Are there certain things you'll never do again

First, my family is made up of real theater artists who believe you can always make something out of any role—there's always something to learn. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, so it's impossible for me to walk away from any project that interests me in any way. So when Two for the Money comes along, and it's the opportunity to be the thankless, abrasive best friend that I've done thirtynine times, but it's with Al Pacino, I can't walk away. It's like, what actor in his right mind wouldn't just want to be near him and watch him work And here's my chance. I just wanted him to breathe on me.

**Were you intimidated **

When I first laid eyes on him I was really, really intimidated. But then your warrior instincts take over. It's what you've trained for your whole life. The thing that impressed me about him the most is that he's really funny and approachable and tireless in his work. I watched a person—who will remain nameless—treat him as if he were an eighthgrade actor late to class who hadn't prepared his scene. This person was so disrespectful to him without having any reference for the process or the method or anything that Al Pacino is about. This person just yelled "Cut" in the middle of a rehearsal and proceeded to berate Al about the authenticity of Al's character, the makeup of an alpha male. My first instinct was, "Fuck, it's over. Al's going to get up and walk out, and that's it. Game over. And I won't get my Al Pacino moments." But here's what Al did. He took a moment, closed his script, looked at the guy calmly, and said, "It's a little more complicated than that." I learned more from that moment. What a beautiful lesson.

There's a story about the Dalai Lama and this guy who follows him from place to place, everywhere he goes, for years, desperately trying to get his goat, constantly berating him and calling him a phony, saying that he's lying to his followers. But the Dalai Lama never responds, never even shows that he's ruffled. And after years of doing this, the guy finally says, "I've been following you for all these years and have never gotten a response from you. Why" And the Dalai Lama says, "Because you're trying to give me a gift that doesn't belong to me. It's not mine, and I can't take it from you." Al Pacino could have turned on this guy and crushed him. But he didn't. And now that guy has to own that moment. It's his and nobody else's. You see people throwing temper tantrums every day, especially in Hollywood, but I'll just always remember Al Pacino being treated like a little bitch and in response just being calm and kind. That's a beautiful lesson.

**Is there a moment in your career that you look back on now and think, I could have folded then Or some time when you doubted whether staying in Hollywood was the thing for you **

My father, who was the best actor I ever knew and was many times the artist I am, always told me to make the choice that will inspire you to get to work. I've managed to do that. But there's been nothing linear about my journey, and there have definitely been some things I regret. Or one thing, at least.

I was convinced by a couple of young producers—who were women from the Midwest, and so I immediately trusted them from the getgo—to come do the TV show Ellen. I took a look at it and said, "Thank you so much, but I don't get it, it doesn't make me laugh, so no thank you." They said, "This is what we're talking about. This honesty is what we want, Jeremy." I said, "Well, Warren Littlefield wants me to do my own show, opposite Friends, and that's what I want to do." They said, "This is your own show." "Really" "You'll have a builtin audience." "Um, okay, can I contribute to scripts Can I improvise" "Yes, yes, yes, Jeremy, yes!" And then the first time I tried to do that, the very first time I massaged a line that didn't get a laugh so that it got one, the director yelled "Cut" and came over to me and said, "Never do that again." I was like, "Oh, I get it. They'll say anything to get you on a show." And then I almost passed out. For three years I was not even allowed to contribute.

I was proud of myself, though. I went to work every day. It was the first and last time in my life that I dragged myself to work. Maybe someone could say those were golden handcuffs, but they weren't even that golden. I could pay my rent as an actor, sure, but I'd rather have been onstage in Chicago, doing my thing and having fun, than being on a show where I was not even allowed to contribute.

What I had to do to just survive that artistically—there was no way to win. I was beaten. That was a strange time. I've been so diplomatic all these years, never talking about it, not that anyone cares, but it's important to know that this whole lookyouinyoureyes blindtrust thing is bullshit. In terms of television, they'll say whatever they need to get you to the table.

The one thing I get that my father never got, though, is that you have to choose your battles. I'd so much rather have the freedom between "action" and "cut" and take a victory there than take it somewhere else and lose that opportunity.

I don't have anything like the power my father had as an actor, but I have more diplomacy. I never cracked. When other people came calling, they wouldn't let me leave that show. They essentially said, "We're going to give you nothing to do, and you can't contribute." Yeah, I was getting paid, but I was in my early thirties. That was the time for me to be doing something with my career. And I just had to show up every day and suck it up. Every once in a while someone will stop me on the street, and they won't talk to me about Entourage or The Larry Sanders Show or Black Hawk Down. They'll say, "Man, you were great on Ellen." And I'll be totally floored. It's like that was someone else's life.

Is what you're experiencing now a completely different level of fame, even though it's an HBO show that doesn't get huge ratings

Definitely. Definitely. I've been on hit shows, but I've never experienced anything like this. It makes me think there's something archaic about the Nielsen ratings, you know I look at those Nielsen ratings and it's like, Are you kidding me George Bush knows where I trained this morning, Halliburton knows what my fabric softener is, but they can't monitor who's watching what They have these ratings, and all I know is, the ratings and the response don't match up. But word's getting out. And that's all that matters. We just need to keep making a great show and hope word keeps getting out.